A project to avert transport chaos in hurricane season and a programme which led to a huge reduction in road crashes were among the big winners in a new US awards scheme.

The US National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE)’s inaugural Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Awards were open to cities, counties, metropolitan or rural planning organisations, state departments of transportation (DoTs) and private companies.

Patrick Son, managing director of NOCoE, says 60 entries highlighted TSMO projects undertaken in the last five years that have benefited the travelling public.

Highlights included North Carolina DoT’s work in advance of Hurricane Florence, which triumphed in the Major Incident or Special Event Planning and Response category – and the Best TSMO Project (Creative Solution) award, which went to Arizona DoT’s US-60 Restripe Project for reducing crashes by 70% at an interstate merge.

“Over the coming months, we plan to share as many of these ideas as possible to benefit the entire industry,” Son adds.

• Each category winner will receive round-trip travel to attend the 2019 Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting where they will present their projects to attendees and industry leaders. • An overall winner will be chosen from among the category winners to receive the NOCoE trophy. Also, one individual will be presented with the annual TSMO champion award.